With development of larger-screen displays with higher-performance, not only are televisions used for viewing broadcast programs and movies, but also new functions are being realized and used such as: browsing a variety of information through Internet access; operating in cooperation with a household device connected to a network; and various applications such as photo viewers and games.
In such a context, in order to deal with such various applications and functions expected to be further developed in future, it is essential to develop an input device which enables an input operation with higher degrees of freedom and flexibility, in addition to a conventional representative input device including a plurality of buttons.
A pointing device is an input device which allows controlling a pointer or a cursor displayed on the screen and specifying an arbitrary position or direction of the pointer or cursor, and is, for example, a touch panel, a track ball, a joystick, and a mouse. Compared to those of a conventional button type, this pointing device facilitates an operation for selecting menus and objects regardless of the graphical user interface (GUI) configuration, and is thus being incorporated into a cellular phone, an audio-visual (AV) device, and a game device that have recently been developed.
Many of such apparatuses have recently been developed as an apparatus for which a touch panel or a touchpad is adopted as an input device, and are characterized by intuitiveness that allows operations through direct touch with a finger or pen. Such devices, allowing use of many command gesture operations, are also being used as a quick pointing device which realizes higher degrees of freedom as a remote control for household appliances used by a larger number of users, in addition to being used for information devices.
Such a conventional pointer position presentation method and an operation method that are used on the display apparatus according to the conventional input coordinate input device can be largely divided into four groups according to grouping axes: “whether a coordinate input position and a display apparatus are integrated or separate” and “whether the coordinate system on the coordinate input device on which the user provides an input corresponds, on a one-to-one basis, to the coordinate system displayed by the system on the display apparatus”.
Here, being integrated indicates having “a shape such that the coordinate input device and the display apparatus are superimposed as one device like a touch panel” and being separate indicates having a “shape such that the coordinate input device and the display apparatus are separately provided like a display and a mouse of a personal computer”.
Hereinafter, for the purpose of description, a mode in which the coordinate system input by the user corresponds to the coordinate system displayed by the system on a one-to-one basis is referred to as an absolute coordinate mode, and the other mode is referred to as a relative coordinate mode. In addition, for the purpose of description, mutually switching these coordinate modes is referred to as coordinate mode switching.
(1) Integrated Absolute Coordinate Mode
This is a configuration in which a display unit (display) of the display apparatus and an input detection unit (touch panel) of the coordinate input device are superimposed, and in which pointing is performed by directly touching an operation target (an icon, and so on) on the display unit. Examples include: Nintendo DS (registered trademark) of Nintendo Co., Ltd., and iPhone (registered trademark).
(2) Separate Relative Coordinate Mode
This is a configuration in which the display unit of the display apparatus and the input detection unit of the coordinate input device are not physically superimposed, and coordinates are indirectly input to the display apparatus. Examples include: a mouse for a desktop personal computer, and a touchpad for a laptop personal computer. Although the touchpad and the display apparatus can be considered to be integrated when the entire laptop personal computer is regarded as one device, the touchpad and the display apparatus in the present invention are considered to be separate for the reason that the display unit and the input detection unit are not physically overlapped as in the example (1) above.
(3) Separate Absolute Coordinate Mode
This is a configuration in which a set of coordinates on the input detection unit such as a touchpad or a tablet corresponds to a set of coordinates on the display unit on a one-to-one basis. Examples include: a touchpad for a handwriting input device and an external input tablet for a drawing tool. Examples include: a pen-input tablet and a touch tablet (not of an all-in-one type) of Wacom. Since a coordinate point at which the input detection unit is touched (at which the input is started) is directly transformed into a corresponding coordinate point on the display unit, this mode is used for input of handwriting Chinese characters, illustration drawing, and so on.
(4) Integrated Relative Coordinate Mode
Examples include using a part of an input detection unit of a coordinate input device which also functions as a display unit of a display apparatus, for operating a lead character in a game in part of a game application through the touch panel. The control device and method corresponding to this case are not common compared to those in (1) to (3) above.
Thus, the method of exchanging coordinates (display control) between the coordinate input device and the display apparatus largely includes two modes, “absolute coordinate mode” and “relative coordinate mode”.
As a representative example, FIGS. 16 and 17 show an example of pointing using the “separate absolute coordinate mode” and “separate relative coordinate mode”. Note that an input detection unit 210 is, for example, a touchpad. In addition, a display unit 230 is, for example, a liquid crystal display (LCD). In this context, for the purpose of describing the coordinate mode, it is assumed that when tracing the input detection unit 210 with a finger, a trajectory of the pointer is displayed on the display unit 230.
FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a correspondence, in the absolute coordinate mode, between a trajectory of the finger on the input detection unit 210 and a trajectory of the pointer on the display unit 230.
For example, when touching the input detection unit 210 with a finger and tracing as shown by a trajectory A610, a trajectory display A620 is displayed on the display unit 230. In the display, such contact coordinates on the input detection unit 210 correspond to the coordinates on the display unit 230 on a one-to-one basis.
On the other hand, FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a correspondence, in the relative coordinate mode, between a trajectory of the finger on the input detection unit 210 and a trajectory of the pointer on the display unit 230.
For example, when touching the input detection unit 210 with a finger and tracing trajectories B630, C632, and D634 in order, the display unit 230 serially displays trajectory displays B640, C642, and D644. Here, the trajectory displays B640, C642, and D644 correspond respectively to inputs of trajectories B630, C632, and D634.